Okay fellow crafters, has anyone tried tatting? I'm fairly crafty, dabbled in everything from paint to clay to needle works, yet never tried tatting, my mother also has always wanted to learn so my usual teacher of technical basics is as much in the dark as I am.

From what we both have gathered there are 2 "types" of tatting, needle and shuttle, which one might be better to start learning on we haven't a clue. Generally I'm a jump in the deep end kind of person, so I'm sorely tempted to just go buy a needle and some thread and just give it a go, worse case scenario I'm out about $10 and have a bloodied knotted mess to show for my efforts.

There's also the distinct possibility I'll be able to pick it up which could also potentially be even worse of a scenario depending on my patience in then teaching my mother she at least had a chance to learn long long ago but never gained a knack for it.

Best case scenario however is that I end up with some gorgeous christmas decorations and maybe some nice lace trim for the napkins, while I'm laid up following my sinus surgeries (2 weeks in bed and another 2 on "limited activity" then about 1-2 more on "light activity") still better 3 surgeries at once with a month and a half recovery over splitting them up and ending up with over 3 months.

I still have the owl afghan to finish, which will probably be done the first couple of days, nice and mindless. The lacy knit that I started, I learned quickly that the hands have not healed quite enough yet, really need some PT on the left side before I can knit, so I definitely am going to be in need of something new and interesting that will keep my attention, not kill my poor left hand, can be done sitting up a bit and won't get torn out if I fall asleep depending on meds they give me. Tatting seems like the solution, so if anyone else has done it... Needle? Shuttle? Or wait till I'm not drugged up and get the hubby to make me a pin lacing board instead?

I tried needle tatting about twenty years ago when I was working at a telemarketing job.

It was ok, but I never really made much. I think I didn't care much for the skinny thread. I would never be able to do it now that my fingers are numb most of the time.

Too bad my maternal grandmother lived in Alabama back then. I found out a few years ago that she used to shuttle tat. (she died in 2000). I probably would have asked her to teach me if I'd lived closer to her.

I did use to have a crochet pattern book that had patterns to make crochet doilies that looked like they were tatted. I wonder if I still have it?

I asked my sister yesterday how her knitting has come along. She hadn't even opened the store bag much less reading the book and practising. So I found a couple of u-tube videos for beginners and found some on learning how to cast off. I would suppose she would need to learn that first???? Any advice?

Casting off is what you do when you're finished knitting, and you want to take your project off the needles, and not have the whole thing unravel on you.

Casting on, is how you get the yarn onto the needles. There's several different cast on's that can be used, depending on what you want to do. (I never know what specific cast on is best. I almost always use long-tail cast on)

Long Tail Cast On

Knitting

Yes you are right, it's casting on.

Erin, the lady in the videos is using one needle. The other videos I have seen use 2. The book my sister has is 2. What is the best for a very beginner?

I don't know which is best. I tried a couple of different cast on techniques before I decided on one. You could probably try several different kinds and see which one is easier to do.

When I first learned to knit, I had no idea how to do a cast on. I improvised one by crocheting a chain just like I would if I was going to start a crochet project. Then used a crochet hook to pull the loops onto the needle thru each crochet stitch (I know, not a good description of what I did). Found out later that it's an actual cast on that knitters use. I already knew it was a cast on for a special technique of crocheting.

I think it's called the provisional cast on in knitting, but in crochet it would be called a Tunisian cast on. I'll have to look for a video for it.

Apparently I've added creative writing to my list of hobbies.

I wrote three fan fiction stories in the last five days for my favorite tv show. They're extremely short stories, but just the fact that I managed to write them is a serious accomplishment for me.

another big accomplishment for me is that I actually posted them to a fan fiction website where other people could read them. It's not the first time I've posted fanfic. I did write three other short stories last year. But, hadn't thought about doing any more.

I think I'm doing the creative writing because I started keeping a journal. Another one of my interests are fountain pens. I bought a couple of fountain pens in the past month, and I *had* to start using them for something. So, that's where the journal writing came in. I read a lot of fanfic, and there have been a couple of times where I was hoping someone would write alternate endings to a tv show, or write a missing scene to explain something that happened in an episode.

Guess I got tired of waiting for someone else to write the missing and alternate scenes. Been using my fountain pens to write out a basic plot, and then I've been typing that up into my computer. Go back and forth between handwriting it up, and typing it up until I'm happy with it.

Might have found a small solution to my being bored out of my mind because I've had nothing to do or entertain myself with. Writing might also help keep my brain active and creative.

Awesome! I've been aspiring to be an aspiring author for a long time, far too long to only have one contest win back in grade school to show for it. Ah the dreams of youth. I'd be happy if I could finish a cheesy romance novel at this point, but I'd really die to write up a Sci-fi story that's been rumbling around in my head since the dawn of time it seems.

Problem is I get bored too easily with the cheesy romances, they're all pretty much the same, same... But I can't even begin to wrap my head around the Sci-fi one and how to maintain balance between 'reality' and fiction, descriptive enough that you can well imagine but not so much that you fall alseep thanks to a 20 pg thesis on the color of red of a flower which has no plot point (yes I've seen that in books and would have to kill myself if I did the same) and naturally I don't want to plagiarize anyone.

Heck I can't even find a happy medium between the two genres. It's either wine and oh so cheesy cheese romance, or galaxies far far away with rockem sockem robots ruling the ewoks with an iron fist!! Muhahahahaha.... Well okay that's plenty of plagiarism but at any rate about as opposite ends of the spectrum as ones imagination can go.

So I'm stuck with one that I have a crystal clear handle on the plot but not the presentation versus mainstream 'yawn...' material that the plot matters little so long as person A ends with person B which infuriates person C for whatever weird reason just because it gives a plot to an otherwise whole-heartedly simplistic story that isn't worth reading, even if it means person A is really person C inner conflict oh my!

It might be my own inner conflict come to think of it, I'm harsh when it comes to romance novels despite reading a ton of them and continuing to do so, it's like being addicted to soap operas, not because they're good, but because you just can't believe they're....well so soap opera-ish... So how can I publish something I would harshly ridicule myself for? I really do need to get over it already, get something...anything finished and printed as it's about my best chance at obtaining play money now that working doesn't seem to be, well working.

I'm just glad that in the knitting/crochet website that I go to, my favorite forum there is filled with fans of my favorite tv show, the one that I've been writing those fanfic stories about. I've gotten some pretty good feedback from the other girls in that forum. Plus, a ton of encouragement to keep writing.

It really is fun in that group, because they're really good about kind of challenging the members of that group to try new things. More than half of the new things I've attempted the past couple of years have either been ideas that I've gotten from them, or I've mentioned wanting to try something new, and someone there told me that I'd never know if I didn't try.

That forum, and then the MS forum here are the only two places on the internet where I've had people actually make me want to try the new fun stuff. I'm just glad that there's two really good places on the internet for me to spend my time in when the MS makes me feel like crap.

I guess it was about a year or so ago that I decided I was going to write a book. I didn't know if it would sell or not. That didn't matter to me. It was to be called 'Recollections of my life through rose colored glasses'. It was recollections of my life because I don't always remember things the way they are or were. Sometimes I remember the way I wanted it to be, party because of my MS also. And the rose colored glasses was because that's just the way I am. I am the forever optimist. Hubie gets mad at me sometimes, he says I have my head in the sand and just don't see things the way they are. I tell him that I see them, I just choose to react a different way than he does or just ignore the situation because I have no control over it. Anyway, a lot of this is written in the notes section of my iPad, kind of disorganized.

My sister went to a craft store and signed up for a beginner knitting class. They are going to making a cap. the instructor said she needs a beginner before beginner class. But they did go in the class room and she worked with her to show her how to at east start a stitch and how to cast one. I told her that I guess I could take the class also since they really don't have enough signed up for a class but that I'm not interested in doing knitting. I encouraged her again to go to the retirement home Mom lived in before she died or a nursing home or just ask around at church. My sister is usually so talkative I don't know why she is hesitant to ask.